May in our garden

Do you document regularly or at least here and there your garden, house, flat, I mean the environment you live in? I’m sure I don’t do it often enough… even though I find it interesting to compare the older photos with the current appearance, one quickly forgets. On Sunday I decided to grab my camera and capture some details in our garden and I would like to share some of the photos with you.

Paeonia suffruticosa is a flower that has never disappointed me… So elegant.

The rhododendron below is a small bush which we bought for just a few bucks in end of season sale in Tesco supermarket and frankly, we didn’t expect much. Yet it surprised us in quite a pleasant way. Twice actually as we have two of them and they both look great.

Our little rock garden looks great at this time of year, here is part of it. My hubby calls the stones in the middle of the rock garden (here on the left) “stone sea” and I love that expression.

You may know Euonymus fortunei – it is the green and yellow plant which contrasts so nicely with our neighbour’s lilacs. The yellow colour lasts all year long, the plant is evergreen.

Our dwarf pine took a few years to get settled but now it looks great in the garden. It’s (and should be) just about one meter high and when I was taking the photos, I discovered some ox-eye daisies growing wildly at its base.

The yellow azalea was not lucky this year, its blossoms got frostbitten at the beginning of May when temperatures fell a few degrees below the freezing point. I hoped the leaves would not be damaged and surprise, surprise, I even discovered these two flowers survived.

Another azalea, opening its buds… It’s interesting that the buds are reddish but the blossoms are vibrantly orange.

I brought ferns once and planted them in a flower bed and found out quite quickly that they were infesting the place. I replanted them to a place where they can do no harm, hopefully.

I could say that nettles are my enemies, they can also infest places mercilessly but here are some that look good, don’t they?

You see, this time I did my job of documenting the garden, now it’s your turn to document yours.

Your peonies are so lovely, I envy you for them! My rhody has the same color – the blossoms are long gone, though.
We don’t have nettles here, but I remember them from my home in Germany. As a child I was often “bitten” by them – I remember the itching and burning quite well.

Carola, thank you. I was happy that the peony survived replanting a few years ago. I read that peony bushes don’t like replanting but we needed to move it into another part of the garden so we took the risk. Fortunately the peony just needed some time to settle in the new location and skipped flowering one spring and now it looks great again. I also have a different kind of peonies but they are still in buds.
You remember nettles well, their sting may be quite painful. They say that they have many beneficial effects and I believe them but when they infest a place, it’s quite difficult to get rid of them because of their persistent root system…

I really enjoyed this, Petra. All the flowers are gorgeous. I always associate peonies with my dad, since he always had at least one bush of them. The rhododendron and azaleas are gorgeous. And the rock garden is beautiful! A lot of work must have gone into that. You really got that daisy at the bottom of the dwarf pine to pop in the photo. Thanks for sharing your garden with us.

Linda, thank you, I’m pleased you enjoyed the post. I should work more in the garden… But I’m pleased to see how we shape it and enhance gradually, I love the open space. I even don’t need to be there, just the knowing that it’s there is precious. 🙂

Ginnie, I know that nettles have many beneficial effects, I just wish they would grow elsewhere as they are good servants but bad masters… Their stinging is merciless and their roots don’t give up easily!
Thanks for the link. The beneficial health effects seem to be many indeed so drinking the tea is surely a good idea. I used to drink it but didn’t like the taste…
I will add that nettles are not recommended just for drinking. For example, you can regularly rinse your hair with the liquid from the nettle macerate to improve its appearance and quality, you can water plants with nettle macerate to get rid of various pests, you can use young nettles when cooking, e.g. as herb in stuffing.

I don’t have a garden, but I do document the beauty I see in other people’s gardens as I walk around the neighborhood. Then I ask myself why I need to take more photos every year of daffodils and lilacs and rhododendrons. The answer is…I just DO! If nothing else, it’s a reminder of the cycle of life, and looking at those photos in the depths of winter lifts me with the knowledge that light and warmth will soon return.

Lee, thank you for stopping by, I like your perspective. I’d say that the cycle of life keeps us going and gives us assurance that things are as they should be. The beauty is always so fresh and welcome and preserving it in the photos enables us to enjoy it much longer. In reality, it often fades so quickly… like the peony in my photo… It’s gone now and I’m happy I captured it. Again. 🙂

How beautiful! Thanks for the nudge to document the “every day” as you have here. I am getting ready to do a small makeover in our backyard…so you’ve inspired me to photograph! All your plants are lovely!